HSMAI Europe launching New Weekly Video Podcast
HSMAI Europe is launching a weekly video podcast on AI and hospitality strategy, inviting up to three Founding Partners and select AI Content Partners to co-create the platform.
News
Community Cannot Be Built From a Distance
HSMAI Europe outlines a packed autumn schedule spanning six cities across five countries, with Commercial Strategy Week set for InterContinental London Park Lane in January 2027.
By Ingunn Hofseth, President & CEO, HSMAI (Europe)
HSMAI Foundation Announces 2026 Mike Dimond Student Career Success Scholarship Recipients
HSMAI Foundation names four hospitality students as 2026 Mike Dimond Scholarship recipients, each receiving a $2,000 grant, conference access, and mentorship from an industry executive.
Bigger Budgets, Smarter Trips: South East Asia’s Next Travel Growth Wave
Hilton's South East Asia Pulse Check of 3,000 travelers finds 59% plan to spend more per trip, with Gen Z and Millennials driving frequency and spending growth across six regional markets.
Business Travelers Reveal the Lengths They’ll Go to for a Little Downtime
Hyatt survey of 2,000 U.S. business travelers finds 90% rely on their hotel room as the only true off-clock space during work trips, used to promote its 700+ property Essentials portfolio and limited-time loyalty bonus point offers.
Emirates Environmental Group Launches “Emirates Hospitality Sustainability Alliance”
EEG launched the Emirates Hospitality Sustainability Alliance (EHSA) in Sharjah to unite UAE hospitality operators around collective sustainability action, knowledge sharing, and a future sector-specific sustainability standard.
Goodbye FIFA, hello conventions: US hotels pivot from group play to group demand as fall nears
U.S. hotel performance surged in July driven by FIFA World Cup displacement effects, with non-host cities like Chicago and Detroit posting RevPAR gains of 16-17%, while ADR grew 8.2% above inflation.
By Isaac Collazo and Jan Freitag
Hilton Wires Into Google, ChatGPT and Claude, Airbnb Brings 650 Million Accounts to Hotels, Bad Records Keep You Out of AI Answers
Monday brought the first brand-side answer to Friday's Google launch. Hilton put an AI Planner on its own site and app, joined Google's AI Mode with Honors Points redemption, added a ChatGPT plugin, and confirmed a Claude Connector in development, with booking redirected to Hilton.com in each case. Airbnb's hotels leadership put numbers to its push: 650 million user accounts, 90% of demand arriving direct, hotel nights growing roughly three times faster than homes from a single-digit share, and no master agreements with the big brand families yet. Four separate pieces argued that inconsistent or unstructured property records are keeping hotels out of AI recommendations entirely. Choice named Dominic Dragisich permanent CEO, and Duetto announced the death of founder Marco Benvenuti.
The Chapter 8 — The Payroll the GM Never Read
A case study of a Florida hotel where an executive housekeeper paid two ghost employees nearly $470K over four years, exposed only when a new AGM audited I-9 records on her first day.
By David Lund, The Hotel Financial Coach, David Lund
The Baker's Dozen Checks In
A McKinsey 2025 Technology Trends Outlook analysis filtered for hospitality, arguing that agentic AI is reshaping the guest booking layer and that governance, not model capability, is now the key constraint on adoption.
By Terence Ronson, Founder & Managing Director, Pertlink Limited
Why Hotel CMOs Keep Rearranging Deck Chairs on the Titanic
As generative AI platforms capture a growing share of travel research, hotels with inaccurate or inconsistent online records are being excluded from AI-generated recommendations before guests even enter the booking funnel.
By Andrew Paul, Managing Director, Americas Great Resorts
Choice Hotels International Appoints Dominic Dragisich as President & Chief Executive Officer
Choice Hotels' Board named Dominic Dragisich permanent CEO effective August 31, 2026, after he served as Interim CEO since May 20, 2026, following nearly a decade with the company.
Why Guests No Longer Just Want to Be Served. Dr Maggie Chen on the Future of Immersive Experiences
EHL's Dr. Maggie Chen argues guests now seek immersive, co-created experiences driven by a craving for authenticity and human connection in an AI-saturated world.
By Dr. Meng-Mei Maggie Chen, Author of Hospitality Vibes and Associate Professor, EHL
Not Done Weekly is Back! - The OTA Duopoly Just Got Company.
Airbnb's Hotels team leaders detail 650M users, 90% direct demand, and hotel nights growing 3x faster than homes, raising real questions about OTA dependency for independent hotels.
EHL Group announces leadership transition and appoints Achim Schmitt as the next CEO
EHL Group's Dean Achim Schmitt will succeed current CEO Markus Venzin on January 1, 2027, with a mandate to prioritize education, academic rigor, and practical hospitality training.
She charges $350 to plan the trip. Your front desk decides if it was worth it
As travel advisors increasingly charge clients direct fees averaging $350 per trip, hotels' front desk teams become the critical moment of truth that determines whether that fee felt worth it.
By Markus Busch, Editor/Publisher, hospitality.today
HVS Asia Pacific Hospitality Newsletter - Week Ending 28 August 2026
The weekly HVS roundup covers REIT hotel acquisitions in the Philippines, Japan, and Hong Kong, plus a new KRW125B convention center opening in South Korea ahead of the 2026 ITS World Congress.
BC Hotel Association Goes Behind the Scenes of BC Hospitality with The Check-In
BCHA launched The Check-In, a six-part video series hosted by a UBC student, spotlighting hospitality career paths at hotels across British Columbia.
The Keys to Hotel Revenue with AI: There's No Magic Pill, Only Readiness, Implementation, and Operations
A hotel advisory framework arguing AI delivers revenue gains only when deployed across three sequential phases: readiness, implementation, and operations, not as a standalone cost-cutting tool.
By Are Morch, Digital Transformation Coach for Hotels, Are Morch, AI Champion
A Day in the Life of a Hotel Finance Team: With vs. Without Fairmas
Fairmas promotes its FairPlanner FP&A software by contrasting manual, spreadsheet-based hotel finance workflows with an integrated planning platform that connects budgets, forecasts, and operational data.
By Kinza Raheel, International Marketing & Communications Manager, Fairmas GmbH